ROME, Jan 15 (Reuters) ?Lazio's Chilean striker Marcelo Salas celebrates goals like a Spanish bullfighter, dropping on one knee and saluting the crowd, but if he scores against Parma on Sunday it would be no surprise if he finds old rival Argentine Hernan Crespo has beaten him to it.
Ever since "El Matador" moved from his native Chile to Argentina in 1996, he has been following in Crespo's footsteps.
At the time, Crespo, who played for River Plate from 1993 to 1996, was a 21-year-old national hero after his six goals took Argentina to the silver medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games. Even national president Carlos Menem made a personal plea to try to stop his transfer to Parma.
By contrast, Salas only took Crespo's place at River Plate after veteran manager Carlos Bilardo had turned down a transfer to Boca Juniors with the comment: "no Chilean has ever succeeded in Argentina."
Salas made Bilardo eat his words by helping his new team to the 1996 Libertadores Cup ?but Crespo had achieved the same feat with the same club 12 months earlier.
Now, as the two players prepare to face each other for the first time in Serie A, Crespo once again has the upper hand on Salas. With 10 goals in 10 matches he has scored three more than Salas, helping put Parma top of the league, three-points ahead of Lazio.
At least Salas has taken less time to win over his home fans than Crespo.
The 24-year-old son of a bus driver is already a hero in the Italian capital for his ability to score decisive goals, such as the late winner at Juventus last November that started Lazio on their current run of five consecutive victories.
According to Chile's national manager Nelson Acosta, Salas stands out from other strikers for his willingness to stick to his marker and fight for the ball.
Parma's Italian international defender Fabio Cannavaro well remembers how he was comprehensively outjumped and outpushed by Salas -- hardly a giant -- when the Chilean scored his side's second goal in last summer's 2-2 World Cup draw with Italy.
Former River Plate team mate Enzo Francescoli is also full of praise. "I cannot remember a single Salas goal where the ball failed to enter the net exactly where he wanted it," he said.
After an injury-plagued start to the season, when the Chilean publicly complained about his treatment from Italy's tough man-to-man markers, Salas has quickly established himself as Christian Vieri's regular strike partner.
In total, he has scored 15 league and cup goals ?second only to the prolific Gabriel Batistuta.
And while Salas has followed Crespo, Crespo in turn has spent a lifetime coming second-best to Batistuta.
The great Florentine striker not only kept Crespo out of the national side in France 1998, he also looked like stealing his place in the Parma team.
In the summer, club president Stefano Tanzi, who had already enticed manager Alberto Malesani to leave Fiorentina, was keen to sign Batistuta after Crespo's failure to make the leap from a scorer of great goals to a great goalscorer in his first two seasons.
Despite scoring 12 goals in each of the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons, Crespo had failed to win the hearts and minds of the Parma faithful and last season he was regularly booed.
"I didn't like that," admitted Crespo. "Although it was the VIP section who booed me not the real fans on the terraces." In fairness, Crespo always had an uphill battle to win over the Tardini faithful after then coach Carlo Ancelotti sold local hero Gianfranco Zola to Chelsea to accommodate the young Argentine phenomenon in 1996.
"I was beginning to pay for the continual trips to Argentina to play for the national side," says Crespo. "There were matches when I was tired even before the match started. After France 98, I took my first 15 days of holiday since 1995."
At first, there were few signs that the break was making any difference as Crespo, like the rest of Parma's team, struggled for goals.
The turning point came on October 31 with both goals in Parma's 2-0 home win over Fiorentina and, two weeks later, a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over Udinese which included a superb back-heeled goal after just three minutes.
Since then, Crespo has scored five more goals, including two in a 4-0 victory over AC Milan.
With 10 goals and Parma top of the table, Crespo is once again ahead of Salas and keen to stay there on Sunday.